When someone gives you their email address, do you judge them? It's always interesting to find out that someone you had respected just moments earlier can be reached at sexy_manotaur19@something.com. I don't see that very often anymore. I still do, but most people have caught on to the fact that email is not just a passing fad. But I'm still judging the second half of your email address. Do you use Aol's email system? Even in 2010? My mother does. She signed up for Aol sometime around 1995. I don't know if she's learned how to attach something to an email since the last time she asked me how to, well, do that. Whenever I see someone's @aol.com email address, I imagine that person and my mom struggling to send attachments to each other.
There's a rumor going around the internet that Facebook is going to unveil their own @facebook.com email service on Monday. So what are you going to think when someone give you an @facebook.com email address? Facebook can't even make a decent chat program. Maybe that's harsh. It's entirely possible that Facebook can make a chat program that isn't terrible. Maybe they just choose not to. I could be wrong, but I doubt that Facebook is going to unveil an email system along with a calendar, decent chat service, and a cloud-based productivity suite that's actually competitive with Microsoft Office. And make it all of those pieces work with each other. Seamlessly.
They're not going to do it. So Facebook's email service is going to less capable than Gmail. Less capable isn't necessarily unmarketable. Lower common denominators can be very popular. Factories churned out quite a few Yugos. Is New York Magazine (and many others) getting hot and bothered by the rumor that Facebook is going to unveil their very own Yugo?
This is still a rumor, but it sounds like there might be something to it. We won't have to wait very long to see. Even if they don't introduce an @facebook.com email service on Monday, I wouldn't be surprised if they do eventually do something like that. What would surprise me is Facebook creating something that's not an internet Yugo.
